Attitude is for many people a choice. The same circumstances approached with different attitudes produce different levels of happiness. Choose the attitudes that foster happiness. Generosity, forgiveness, openness and a little equanimity go a long way. Seeing yourself as an empowered and responsible actor with choices helps too.

Action brings happiness. Action has an intrinsic value but also leads to better outcomes. If you are not happy, what can you change to be happier? Make small changes. Experiment. Find a way to make things better step by step.

The greatest barrier to happiness is the feeling that things can’t change. We experience enormous change every day. We can find new ways to change those things blocking our happiness. Abandon hopelessness and start making change.

Finding a way forward takes awareness of what gives and takes from your happiness. Without focus on the choices we make they slip by feeling like the force of circumstances. Put a small step of reflection and find new paths to happiness.

Happy New Year

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe